


Grievous and Sk'ar Fragments

by sinousine



Series: The General [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Gender or Sex Swap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 03:26:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11477649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinousine/pseuds/sinousine
Summary: Some WIPS of my fem Grievous AU that have been sitting around on my laptop for years centering around General Sk'ar. Mostly angsty. I thought I should post them, should somebody enjoy that sort of thing.





	Grievous and Sk'ar Fragments

**Author's Note:**

> I have hangups about writing a character who is a war criminal. I felt like my portrayal was too rosy somehow.

He was a brute once, he still is.

Their first meeting ended with a blade pointed at his throat and her foot on his chest. He thought it would be an easy fight - such a scrawny hen ought to be under his protection, in his bed. He need only grab her by the legs and break them. So what a shock to the mighty Sk'ar that he was the one who had the wind knocked out of him, pinned to the ground, keeled over in pain.

The next thing Bentilais remembered was Qaian extending her hand out to him. Behind her stood the masked visage of her sworn sister, Ronderu, her disapproving eyes framed by her karabbac mane and her hands relaxing their grip on the sword hilts at her hips. The danger had passed, for now.

"Come. We both have an enemy to fight."

Qaian had been merciful then - Mother Kalee needed all the capable commanders to rally to her defense and he was the best one on this half of the planet. There were others that were not so lucky - it was reported that the great General Sheelal had lopped off the head of a warlord who was selling his own people to the Huk. Qaian must have judged Bentilais' heart to be good and pure, for her entire demeanor changed as she helped him rise. Her calloused palms on his chest.

You are not a monster. He had lived his life as the subject of fear, with no family to speak of, an animal in a sideshow act. Come see the giant from the deepest depths of the jungle!

Hens would shrink from his touch, running at the first chance. His army followed him, but he knew they did so in fear of reprisal should they displease him.

From that day forward he followed her faithfully, like a hound with his snout against his master's leg and his tail between his legs. It must have been a peculiar sight, this giant of a warrior following a hen half his size. She'd lean against his ear and whisper secrets, and he'd whisper back. She'd weave flower crowns to place on his head. She'd climb on his back to survey the landscape, laughing as his slow steps turned into a rapid gallop. Looking backward, they'd see a figure in a karabbac mask running after them, followed by the other members of General Sheelal's cadre.

"Gotcha!" Ronderu would exclaim as she jumped on his back as well. They fell to the floor, and were joined by their comrades - M'dourrok and Oduch laughing and so full of life.

These moments were the calm, lulls in the ugly violence that scored their lives. Bentilais and Qaian - everyone - had been born to seemingly endless war against the Huk invaders.Children could not wander from their families without the threat of the Bugs taking them away, never to see their home planet again. Hens lived in dread that their houses turned to rubble in a night raid bombing, or being captured and sold into slavery where their bodies, their unborn children, their lives were turned into commodities for offworlders to do as they wished.

General Sheelal and General Kummar vowed to put an end to this, their twin blades stained with the invaders' green blood. No longer would the Kaleesh live in fear. And so the Kolkpravis would return to the front lines.

Sk'ar proved himself a worth ally. He could rip a Bug limb from limb with his bare hands. He could destroy their scouting ships with his sheer strength. He wielded the tactics of fear and surprise almost as well as Sheelal, ambushing the Huk when they least expected.

Still, there were far too many of them returning home in body bags, in pieces. Between them they'd seen too many friends pass from the land of the living.

Springtime was too brief, and happiness fleeting. Death - the cold waters - came for Ronderu. Qaian was almost dragged away by the undercurrent.

Drowning in grief - curled on the floor, refusing food, her skin sallow and her eyes sunken, the stars extinguished from them. She had believed - everyone had believed - the two of them were two halves of a god, that nothing could harm them.

_Why? Have I done something wrong?_

 

In those days he stood vigil through the night, wrapping a blanket around her. Watching for danger - from without - the Huk, or within - political rivals.

If she had asked the same of any of eight of them, each would have said "yes" without hesitation.

-

He waits. Days, months, a year.

He lies down among the blankets and pillows, staring at the space where she once slept. There is no one there, only a blankness, the absence of warmth where she once gazed back at him.

He is in cold shock when he hears the announcement over the Shadowfeed. 

Brilliant Qaian, brutal Qaian, his beloved Qaian was dead. Slain by the Jedi.

He doesn't want to believe it. 

But a voice taunts at the back of his mind. She was already dead the day the she left for Geonosis - he 

You knew that it would happen, sooner or later. The path Qaian walked left a trail of cinders in its wake. She wasn't a god - but a mortal like any other -

There is barely anything left of her for the funeral pyre. He watches as the flames spiral upward into the night - towards the distant stars. Her mother and sisters and himself dressed in mourning blue - Qaian was a blue star that had set her house ablaze with everyone she loved inside. 

Only a fool could believe that her actions would go unpunished. Within months of the Separatist surrender, the Empress on her throne had declared war on Kalee, sending her ships across the Galaxy to crush the civilization which had created General Grievous.

For ten long years he'd fought the invaders, tooth and nail. His plumage turned gray and his appearance more monstrous.

-

With a fatal loyalty, Bentilais san Sk’ar served the Empire that had destroyed everything that he had ever loved. He was a formidable sight – towering over most men, with the strength to rip any Imperial officer limb by limb with his bare hands. He could take a blaster shot to the chest and stop a land speeder in its tracks.

When he walked through the halls of the Imperial cruiser, the men in grey would part around him.

He remembered Oben fallen, burning from the fire of Star Destroyers. He remembered the faces of Qymaen jai Sheelal and Marj-khatun. He had broken his promises to them. He remembered sitting on his command throne, waiting for death. And his would-be executioner was afraid of him!


End file.
